+ Small modular reactors offer a flexible and affordable way to benefit from low-carbon nuclear power.

Small modular reactors aren’t a new concept but they’re an idea whose time has come. With large nuclear plants looking increasingly unaffordable, small modular reactors offer a flexible and cost-effective way to meet the growing demand for low-carbon power.

Increasingly countries are looking to include nuclear power as part of their energy mix because it’s the only low-carbon form of base-load generation in many regions – and it doesn’t rely on the wind blowing or the sun shining. Historically, increasingly large nuclear reactors provided this and realised economies of scale. But without state backing of sovereign wealth fund investment, these plants are now almost unaffordable.

What’s more, many countries lack suitable sites. Access to cooling water is a major factor and in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia the transmission grid infrastructure doesn’t exist or they simply don’t have the space required. These and other countries are facing demand that’s growing at 8-10% per year and can’t wait the decade or more it takes to bring a couple of Gigawatts of generation online. They need something that can give them 400-500MW more each year.

Small modular reactors are the answer in these situations. The larger of these are 200-300MW (about a tenth of the size of the proposed new plant at Hinkley Point C in the UK). Current designs use proven pressurised water reactor technology. Their size makes them quicker and easier to build. And they offer the prospect of bringing capacity online gradually.

Looking further ahead, small modular reactors could help countries like the UK meet their commitment to low-carbon generation. By 2050, the UK’s grid capacity will need to double from 80GW to 160GW as transport goes electric. Meeting this through low-carbon generation could involve a five-fold increase in nuclear power – from 15GW to 75GW.

There aren’t enough suitable sites available to house all the large-scale nuclear plants this step change would require because of technical constraints such as access to cooling water. But there are inland sites such as the former nuclear research centres at Winfrith and Harwell that could easily accommodate smaller modular reactors of a few hundred megawatts.

This approach also has potential on a smaller scale to respond to our changing global needs. Smaller reactors of 50MW could offer a low-carbon way to power data centres, which currently account for around 2% of global energy consumption. They could also power desalination plants to meet increasing demand for potable water in places like the Middle East. Indeed, Russia already uses a small modular reactor to power a desalination plant on the Black Sea Coast.

Even smaller modular reactors of 10-50MW could one day replace gas plants at the heart of combined heat and power plants. Small modular reactors have been providing combined heat and power for the remote Russian community of Bilibino up in the Arctic Circle since 1976. And the generation four systems in development have much smaller emergency planning zones so they don’t have to be built in remote locations.

Nuclear batteries take things a step further, with a small modular reactor contained within a transportation flask. This provides a plug and play solution that seals the reactor and its waste away until the end of the plant’s life, when it can be safely disposed of.

So could all this mean that small modular reactors’ time has come? I think so, particularly if public opinion backs the nuclear option. And studies by the UK Energy Research Centre show opposition to nuclear power in Britain has fallen since 2005 despite the Fukushima accident.

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Jamila

Hello Simon, This is very interesting and it's great to see that there is an existing 'reliable' alternative to fossil fuels that is up to the challenge of meeting the growing energy needs.

You briefly tackled the question of safety, but what are the real risks of deploying small modular reactors broadly across countries? Especially across countries like the Middle East? Do you think there is enough reassurance that the technology can be used in a form that cannot then be transformed into a weapon? Can the modular reactors be designed in such a way that it minimises risks of misuse? Or would that have to translate into international agreements and very strict international monitoring? (Thinking of the current Iranian deadlock on the topic for example). Thanks, Jamila

Simon Barber

I am pleased you enjoyed the article and of course it is not the aim of Thoughts to tackle the issues in any great depth so I hope my response is useful!

All nuclear sites globally are licensed and regulated by national regulators who are there to provide independent oversight of nuclear safety and nuclear material security whilst it is on the power plant site and during transportation and storage. The regulatory approaches applied to current GW+ scale plants will apply equally to Small Modular Reactors; although as plants become more smaller and more modular in future reactors the regulators will need to be satisfied that the designs are continuing to evolve and address the goals of making plants that are safer, more sustainable, more economical, increasingly proliferation-resistant and physically secure – without failing to ask the question ‘Could we do more?’.

Commitments to carbon emissions reductions are seeing many countries embarking on nuclear programmes and the IAEA provides best practice guidance and direct support to these countries through its Nuclear Milestones programme to support individual governments at all stages from establishing a nuclear energy policy, through setting up their national regulator, plant assessment and licensing to first power generation – typically a 10-15 year ‘journey’.

You specifically mention the Middle East and it is an area that is seeing significant growth in nuclear both to move away from a current reliance on oil and gas-fired generation and to power increasing desalination needs. It is worth noting that all countries in the region are signatories of the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which covers signatories’ rights to the peaceful use of nuclear technology, e.g. for power generation. The IAEA plays a key role in this sense in its independent verification work such as in Iran. The member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council signed an agreement in 2006 to collaborate on the peaceful development of nuclear energy. Since then we have seen UAE embark on its programme with the first of 12 proposed reactors under construction and Saudi Arabia announce plans for up to 16 reactors. HRH Prince Turki al Faisal’s keynote speech at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in July 2013 (http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/experts/2837/prince_turki_al_faisal.html) discusses the peaceful rationale behind the GCC agreement in more detail.

Simon Barber

I think SMR potential gets really exciting at the 10s of MW scale - city district scale or large industrial users such as data centres, mines etc combining power and using the waste heat for building or process heating/cooling solutions. Most SMR at the 10-50MW scale are being designed to provide an integrated CHP approach.

At the 100s of MW scale and where the infrastructure exists, district heating solutions could and should be used in preference to heat dumping to marine/river/lake environment or cooling towers. Clearly this isn't unique to SMR...or nuclear!

Alan Thomson

SMR's facilitate ecomomies derived by moving rapidly from FOAK (First of a kind) to NOAK (Nth of a kind) by virtue of their size and 'cookie cutter' approach. This reitition is much more easily and rapidly realised at an SMR scale.

The modular delivery and commercial operation really does help with revenue generation at a much earlier stage in the delivery cycle reducing cash demands and increasing commercial viability. They can also match electricity demand increases in a less 'lumpy' manner, bringing commercial advantage as well as addressing grid challenges and overall energy mix, particularly in countries with a more modest demand ramp up.

It will be interesting to see the development split between single SMR deployment and multiple deployment at a particular site (Ultimately providing a combined capacity comparable with their larger brethren.) My bet is on the latter, at least in the next couple of decades.

Steve Saunders

A very interesting and thought provoking article. I think the oportunities with small reactors is much more than with conventional large scale generation.

My view with many technologies is that we need to join up needs and solutions to give a more holistic solution. David makes a good point about the waste heat but rather than dump the heat I see oportunities in hybrid systems utilising the heat to maximise the energy usage, possibly as energy storage which would be relatively easy to deploy. There could also be advantages in many process industries that utilise heat. Industry and commercial applications use a lot of energy to create and remove heat so there are oportunities here.

Claudio

Thanks for the interesting article, it's more thought provoking than people (the greater population) tend to realise or appreciate. I believe that we need to start thinking laterally (i.e. SMR) regarding the future of our energy generation; our consumption is only increasing, which as everybody knows, leads to a higher rate of depletion of the earth's finite resources, compounded with the negative effects on our atmosphere.

While I'm not an expert on the matter by any stretch, I've been doing a little reading on nuclear power generation, etc. and and came across an "alternative" fuel source, that could apparently be used in nuclear power generation.

Based on the information that I've read, Thorium (Th - element 90 on the periodic table) is one of the worlds most abundant natural resources, has superior physical and nuclear fuel properties, and has reduced nuclear waste production when compared with U235.

What is your opinion regarding the use of Thorium in the nuclear industry and could it be an adequate replacement? If so, I imagine that it would make the operational costs far cheaper than it currently is, leading to an even greater reason for going with SMR's?

Simon Barber

I’m glad you found the article interesting and apologies for the delay in replying. One of my Arup colleagues asked me the same question over our internal mail. My reply to her is posted below:

I’ve enclosed a link with much more information than I can provide here: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/current-and-future-generation/thorium/

There are some technical challenges in making a thorium reactor, not least the fact it isn’t directly fissile (like uranium-235, plutonium-239, -241) but if you can blend it into a mixed oxide fuel with one of these (normally plutonium) you have a fission source which generates neutrons which in turn, through neutron capture, convert the thorium into uranium-233 which is fissile. Energy release is clearly the main beneficial effect but fissioning (splitting) uranium to release the energy also creates fission products, which are generally highly radioactive and the main source of radioactivity in any nuclear plant. Fission is a random process but there is a ‘signature’ for each fissioned isotope and in this sense thorium is advantageous because the fission products from U-233 fission are much shorter lived (1000s of years) than U-235 fission products (10,000s of years) from current reactors. Unfortunately uranium-233 generated from thorium production still has weapons applications and is therefore covered under international non-proliferation treaties.

Whilst some countries (notably India) have invested in thorium reactor research, the key challenge is how to ensure safety – and regulate – thorium power stations. In this sense uranium-fuelled gas or water-moderated reactors have 50+ years and many 100,000s of hours of operating experience to ensure a deeply engrained understanding of their safety and it is this that really forms the key barrier to wider scale adoption of thorium in power reactors. It will come – in more advanced reactor systems that are still at the R&D stage – but probably not until the 2030s or beyond in my view.

ORIAKHI ROMANUS OSARETIN

Good day . l am design a reactor in my project , right now l need some concepts or contribution my fuel is thorium -232 , moderator is water and coolant is water, kindly assist me with other feature .thanks

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